Add older transactions to QuickBooks Self-Employed

Learn how to get transactions from before you connected your accounts.

When you first connect your banks and credit cards, QuickBooks Self-Employed downloads the 30 to 90 days of transactions, and in some cases up to a year. Every time you sign in, QuickBooks automatically downloads new transactions from your connected accounts.

If you want to add transactions that are older than the ones QuickBooks originally downloaded, it’s a two-step process. You need to export the transactions from your bank and then import them into QuickBooks using your laptop or desktop.

Step 1: Get the date range

Follow these steps on a laptop or desktop, not a mobile device or tablet.

Before you get transactions from your bank, check which ones are already in QuickBooks so you don’t add duplicates.

1. In QuickBooks Self-Employed, go to Transactions.
2. From the Account: All drop-down menu, select the account you plan to upload transactions into.
3. From the Date drop-down menu, select All.
4. Select the Date column header to sort the list by date.
5. Take note of the oldest transaction date in the account.

Step 2: Export the transactions from your bank

1. Sign in to your bank’s website.
2. Follow your bank’s steps to download your transactions as a CSV file. This is usually a button or link on your account page.
   

   Important: Your bank may not have specific instructions for QuickBooks Self-Employed. That's ok. As long as you download your transactions as a CSV, you're good to go. Here are steps for Wells Fargo.

3. Set the date range for at least one day before the oldest transaction in the account in QuickBooks.
4. Follow any on-screen instructions to finish the download.

Note: You can add transactions as far back as January 1, 2014.

Step 3: Import the transactions

When you're ready to import, open QuickBooks Self-Employed on a laptop or computer instead of the mobile app.

1. Open QuickBooks Self-Employed in a web browser.
2. Select Settings ⚙.
3. Select Imports.
4. Select Import older transactions for the account you want to add transactions to.
5. Select Browse and find the file you downloaded from your bank. It's usually in your Downloads folder.
6. Select the file and select Open to start the import.
7. Review the column headers and data. Make sure the Date, Description, and Amount columns on the CSV match the columns and order in QuickBooks. The other column headers can be in any order.
8. Select Continue to complete the import.

When it's finished, your older transactions will be in QuickBooks.

Step 4: Review what you imported

Check for any duplicate transactions. There shouldn't be any, but it's still good to double-check:

1. In QuickBooks Self-Employed, go to Transactions.
2. From the Account: All drop-down, select the account.
3. From the Date drop-down menu, select All.
4. Select the Date column header to sort the list by date.
5. Look a few days before and after the original oldest transaction you noted in Step 1. If there are any duplicate transactions, delete the duplicates.

When you're done, review and categorize your transactions to put them in your accounts.